W3C / WHATWG

There has always been a bit of friction over HTML standards. Anyone remember IE's blink markup?

Well eventually most browsers sort of got HTML fairly standard through the help of W3C... Though W3C is not just about browser makers. It also tries and represent content creators and the people using the code. Which can cause conflict. After all the browser makers don't want to rewrite their HTML engines just to please a small subset of programmers.

So the browser makers set up their own group WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) initially Mozilla, Apple, and Opera getting together presumably to fight off the then dominant Microsoft IE. HTML 5 was developed from this group and eventually Microsoft and new upstart Google joined in too. Then in 2018 W3C proposed rewriting the DOM standard in a way none of these companies liked so the all refused to implement the changes. Basically making it dead in the water.

So the two groups got together and decided that W3C would become an advisory group that will propose changes and it will ultimately be the WHATWG group that will set the standards. Until they start fighting among themselves I guess....